Dee Discusses: The X-Files 1.21

Ha ha you people reading knew Tooms would be back so you were probably laughing at me in that first episode. I yelled when I saw him. I yelled too when the board let him out. I yelled at Mulder for being dumb and not playing this correctly. I flailed during the vent chase. I think this episode was even better than his first one, and I really liked the first one. I’m glad I didn’t watch this when I was a kid, because this show would’ve led to so many nightmares for me. Some of the episodes are nightmare fuel now, and I’m twenty-eight! I’m also a scaredy cat so whatever. So as a reminder, Tooms was a serial killer over a century where he comes out every thirty years to kill people, take their liver, and then hibernate. Mulder and Scully managed to catch him last time and he was put in a mental ward for attacking Scully, although there was no way they could prove that he’d committed murders over so much time. This is an important part of the episode, because since his only real charge is attacking Scully, he’s not going to be locked up forever. The corrections board decides to release him from the mental ward after support from the psychiatric staff. Mulder’s reaction is to declare yet again he’s a century old serial killer.

Listen if I’m going to occasionally want to throw things at Scully for never believing anything, I’m going to be just as frustrated at Mulder for never being diplomatic enough to get what he wants. I get that he’s reckless and wants to prove he’s right, but you know they’re not going to believe you. You’re right, we get it, it’s frustrating, but if you want to win these cases you might have to fudge around the details to get the end result. These people were never going to believe you that he’s a freaking mutant serial killer. The important thing was keeping him in a mental ward, and to do that you should’ve tried to focus on the proof of the more current murder and tying him to those. But noooo, Mulder has to yell about the truth being out there and throw fits that no one will believe him. Well now he’s out and probably going to kill people so was it really worth it?

Tooms is out but he’s being a little more careful now that he knows he’s under close watch from Mulder. Scully meets with her higher ups (including Smoking Man) who seem annoyed that she’s turning into a Mulder-lite. They tell her to do more by the books stuff. As usual they’re under threat of being closed, blah blah, I know this goes on for seasons so the X-Files division isn’t going to be closed. Oh I’m told that this other guy is Skinner, he’s the FBI Assistant Director. I think he might’ve been in the show before, but I didn’t recognize him. I’m told he becomes more important later so I got it, recognize him next time self! Scully and the police detective from the last Tooms case look into one of the bodies that was never found, and they find it, but there’s still no evidence connecting him. Tooms tries to frame Mulder by attacking himself and getting Mulder’s footprint. While Skinner doesn’t think Mulder did it, he’s really tired of him being a pain in the ass so he tells him to stay away from Tooms. Lol. Has that ever happened. Ever.

They find Tooms teeth marks on the body, so I guess they can connect dental to him now. Meanwhile his shrink visits Tooms and he kills him. I bet you’re sorry now you doubted them, eh? So he has the final liver and goes back to his old house, which has been destroyed. Mulder crawls down to find his nest and then runs like hell when a terrifying covered in yellow bile Tooms goes after him. AHHHHH. That will haunt my dreams. Tooms is trapped and killed in the escalator tunnel. Yeowch. Skinner and Smoking Man talk about the X-Files and reveal both of them absolutely believe in what Mulder’s saying. So there are a lot of true believers in the FBI after all! This still baffles me, my assumption is that they know he’s right and they’re just keeping their enemies closer. Or maybe like Deep Throat they’re using him to investigate things and then covering it up afterward. Either way it’s interesting that they’re feeding into this MULDER IS CRAZY persona so they can discount his theories and still benefit from it. I feel bad for him again … but I still think he should learn a more diplomatic way of dealing with people who don’t believe. If the end result is important, you don’t have to be right, you just have to get it done. This was a good episode! It was nice to have a call back to Tooms and a conclusion there, and I wonder if that means they’re going to go back to open ended cases later on and close them. I can’t believe this season is nearing its end!